Month: April 2022

When I joined OSU several years ago, I learned my Introduction to Computer Science classes using C++. I am not sure how other people feel about the class, I just feel like I am not good at programming, and I probably should quit early before I invest too much for my second degree. So, after four fundamental classes with C++, I took a year break and thought about giving up to become a Software Engineer.

Back to that time, I was still full-time accountant as I took the break from school. I start looking for job description and asking friends about me about what Software Engineers do everyday and how they come a Software Engineer. That’s when I learned that there is a position called Full Stack Engineer using technologies like JavaScript, Node.js, and MongoDB.

Then I googled online and found there is a bootcamp called Hacker Reactor. They offered Full Stack program which teach you the working flow covered from the client side to the server and how database interact with server. I picked the 12-week immersive program, almost everyday from 8 a.m. to 9 pm. and took Sunday off. You are going to work with different teammates on a project every two days starting from 8:30 a.m. standup meeting and adopt the Agile approach. After 6 weeks, the first half of the bootcamp, I learned the knowledge that I could use in my work everyday as a Web Developer. In the meanwhile, that’s also when I felt that I actually like programming and found my way to study.

I am not going into all the details like what I learned in my Bootcamp. I didn’t finish the whole bootcamp since I thought I learned what I needed from the bootcamp, so I came back to school again and decided to finish my degree. Now I am going to graduate this semester. What I want to say is that everyone has our own timeline, learning curve, and habit. Exploring as many things as we can at the beginning could help us find the way instead of giving up.

The capstone project I am currently working on with my team is Cross Platform Discussion App. We would like to provide a community for users to anonymously converse with each other about any topics they are interested, so they could express their thoughts without any restrictions.

We decide to use Dart and Flutter, which is used to build cross platform applications, so the application will be available for iOS, Android and WebApp at the same time. This way, we don’t need to worry about spending extra time to build the app separately for iOS and Android. We choose to use Firebase to host the backend service as a realtime database, we are not sure how complicated we would go with our app and database, so the limitation of using Firebase is unknown. We open to switch to something else and play it by ear.

The following image I attached below is one of our screen. Our first version of draft design contains 5 screens, and we have extra screens as our stretch goal. We are aiming to create a skeleton for each screen this week and then make sure the navigation works correctly next week. Our progress is on tracking very well based on our project plan. I’ll keep update our progress in the following weeks, and We would like to hear your ideas and suggestions to our project.

Recalling several years ago, I became a tourist guide right after I graduated from the college in Accounting major. The reason I made the choice is that travel is my most favorite thing since I was litter, and it is still my first choice until now whenever I have time to go. So, traveling around with free hotels, meals, and transportations back then is another big plus for me. During that time as a tourist guide, I learned public speaking skills, visited lots of museums and explored different cultures and histories, earned so much valuable memories.

In the meanwhile, I didn’t give up my CPA exams because that’s my whole college, and I invested a lot of time and money on it. After two years, I passed my CPA exam and found an accounting consultant job. Finally, I could practice what I learned in the college. Dealing with different kinds of clients from different industries was a challenge at the beginning, but had lots of fun. Also, I didn’t stop investing on myself and learning new skills during this job. Most of my clients are software company or biotech company, I feel like programming is pretty hot and useful now, that’s how I started my programming journey.

I spent a while to explore which language should I learn, and where my career will go. I tried bootcamp, and I also enrolled in a college program. Then, I made the decision to quite my job, that’s how I ended up here as a full-time computer science student in OSU. I found my first full-time Web Developer Intern last year. It’s an important capstone for me.

Along my way to switch my career path, I feel like there is no knowledge being waster. All the skills I learned in the past is being helping me, I just don’t know when I am going to use it and where I am going to use it. Those skills are there with you all the time, you probably won’t realize you have it until the moment comes. I am so happy that I make this far. If you want to share your story, I would like to hear your wonderful journey.

If we google “What is ross-Platform Mobile Development?”, the definition is the creation of software applications that are compatible with multiple mobile operating systems. I’ve been thinking to try mobile development for a while, and I was trying to pick a platform, either iOS to learn ObjectiveC/Swift or Android to learn Java/Kotlin. It’s a hard decision for me to make because it’s more like a commitment and investment whenever you are planning to learn a new language.

I couldn’t make the decision about the platform until I took the class CS492 Mobile Software Development, which is taught using Dart and Flutter Framework, that’s how I know cross-platform mobile development. the instructor, Yong Bakos’ video is pretty organized and tell you everything you need to onboard you with Mobile Development. I would say this is class that made me feel programming is a fun thing to do, and I want to get more exposure to Mobile Development.

If you are in the situation like me, and would like to get to know Mobile Development, but couldn’t decide which platform you want to pick, this is might be a good starting point. I have some resources that I feel pretty useful and helpful during my learning process, check it out and welcome to leave your comment, we could discuss it and learn it together.

Resources:

• Tools that need to be installed and set up first: https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install
• Lightweight editor like Visual Studio Code is pretty compatible and works very well with Dart/Flutter: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/
• Set up the Hot reload feature will help you to rebuild your simulator without restart the app: https://docs.flutter.dev/development/tools/hot-reload
• Dart Official Documentation is pretty helpful as well: https://dart.dev/guides